Friday, December 4, 2009
PRINCESS ANNE, MD-Stacy Cottingham, a student pursuing a Doctorate of Philosophy degree in the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Organizational Leadership Program, was presented with the Outstanding Pathfinder Award by the Maryland Nurses Association at a luncheon held recently in Baltimore.
The accolade is awarded to a member of the Maryland Nurses Association who has demonstrated excellence and creative leadership that fosters development of the nursing profession. Cottingham was selected based on her work as the director for Partners in Nursing of The Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore.
As the project lead for the two-year demonstration period of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant program to address local nursing workforce needs, Cottingham recruited, trained, acted as a role model and provided support to faculty advisors, mentors and participants in the program. The focus was to create a pipeline for nurses at all career levels into nursing education and make strides in the retention of new graduate nurses on the Shore through an innovative mentoring program.
Cottingham continues to be a role model for continued education as she works toward completion of her degree at UMES. She previously earned her Masters in Science in nursing with a concentration in health care leadership at Salisbury University, where she currently works part-time as a clinical instructor. She is also a staff nurse at Coastal Hospice at the Lake.
She holds professional memberships in the local chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society, where she is vice president; the Maryland Nurses Association; the American Nurse’s Association and the International Leadership Association. She also volunteers as the nurse coordinator for the Diocese of Easton at Camp Wright in Kent Island and with the Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay Council.
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Gail Stephens, assistant director, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-651-7580, gcstephens@umes.edu.
